Opportunities for property victimization: Fixed and random effects models in a cross-national scope

Cross-national research on victimization often does not consider the cultural effects on opportunities leading to victimization. The current study uses a routine activities/lifestyles theoretical framework to examine the opportunities leading to two types of property victimization across forty-five countries. I employ fixed effect and random effect models in efforts to find the best explanation of theft and burglary victimization. The results indicate going out in the evening for leisure activities is an important source of opportunity for both types of property victimization. While a fixed effect model offers the most appropriate explanation for burglary victimization, theft is best explained by a random effects model. For theft victimization, variation in whether or not respondents work or go to school is explained, in part, by the level of development of the country. The findings provide evidence that there are different explanations of opportunity for burglary and theft victimization in a cross-national scope.     

Assets and neighborhoods: The role of individual assets in neighborhood revitalization

Abstract

Asset‐building strategies—including individual development accounts, homeownership programs, and microenterprise development—became increasingly popular in the 1990s. Although research has demonstrated how assets produce individual benefits, less is known about the extent to which these benefits induce positive place‐based effects. We develop a model of the relationship between individual asset‐building strategies and neighborhood revitalization in order to inform future empirical work and help ensure that asset accumulation and neighborhood revitalization are mutually reinforcing. Our model emphasizes the conditions and programmatic factors that may encourage and discourage the transfer of benefits from individuals to neighborhoods.

Examples from case studies of four community‐based organizations suggest that the likelihood of neighborhood spillovers may be increased if policies and practices aim to “manage” the returns from the individual asset, retain asset holders, provide reinvestment conduits, track local purchasing power, and create additional opportunities for collective action.     

Networks and nonprofits: Opportunities and challenges in an era of federal devolution

Abstract

Community development corporations and other nonprofit organizations are increasingly responsible for producing and managing low‐income housing in urban America. This article examines the network of governmental, philanthropic, educational, and other institutions that channel financial, technical, and political support to nonprofit housing sponsors. We analyze the relationships among these institutions and propose an explanation for their success. We then consider challenges the network must confront if the reinvention of federal housing policy is to succeed.

Block grants and rental vouchers, the dominant emphases of federal policy, present opportunities and constraints for nonprofit housing groups and their institutional networks. While states and municipalities are likely to continue to use block grants for nonprofit housing, the viability of this housing will be severely tested as project‐based operating subsidies are replaced by tenant‐based vouchers. We recommend ways that the federal, state, and local governments should help the institutional support network respond to this challenge.     

‘We Can’t Get No Nine-to-Five’: New York City Gang Membership as a Response to the Structural Violence of Everyday Life

Critical Criminology - This article draws on 287 in-depth interviews with young New York City gang members to understand the roles gangs serve in their lives, the impact of labeling the gang as...     

PROTECTING CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN CONTACT DISPUTES: THE ROLE OF CHILDREN'S CONTACT SERVICES IN AUSTRALIA*

This article explores the role of Children's Contact Services (CCSs) in protecting children's right to express, and have heard, their wishes in contact disputes. The findings presented are drawn from the Australian Children's Contact Services Project and were based on 142 interviews with representatives from the government, the courts and legal profession who refer families to CCSs, service staff, as well as the parents and children who use the services. An analysis of client data from 396 families who had used one of six contact services in Victoria and Queensland during the month of August 2003 was also conducted. The findings suggested that CCSs successfully engaged children in a “dynamic self‐deterministic” process where children were able to explore their own wishes in relation to contact visits over time as their relationship goals changed. John Eekelaar described this process as being central to making decisions that are in children's best interests.     

Women's Rights, the European Court, and Supranational Constitutionalism

This analysis examines supranational constitutionalism in the European Union (EU). In particular, the study focuses on the role of the European Court of Justice in the creation of women's rights. I examine the interaction between the Court and member state governments in legal integration, and also the integral role that women's advocates—both individual activists and groups—have played in the development of EU social provisions. The findings suggest that this litigation dynamic can have the effect of fueling the integration process by creating new rights that may empower social actors and EU organizations, with the ultimate effect of diminishing member state government control over the scope and direction of EU law. This study focuses specifically on gender equality law yet provides a general framework for examining the case law in subsequent legal domains, with the purpose of providing a more nuanced understanding of supranational governance and constitutionalism.     

Australian MPs and the Internet: Avoiding the Digital Age?1

New media technologies, such as the internet and email, have been seen as providing opportunities to reinvigorate representative democracy and parliamentary institutions. This article examines the use of new technologies by Australian Members of Parliament (MPs). It looks at the growth and function of MPs' websites and assesses how far such technologies might facilitate changes in their electorate, party and parliamentary roles. We analyse what factors persuade MPs to move online and how they then use the technologies. The results indicate that while websites amongst legislators are growing, they are used primarily as supplementary, administrative tools. Overall, technological innovation in the Australian Parliament is still relatively rare and it appears there are systemic barriers that limit the potential of information communication technologies (ICTs) in the representative process.